Santa Claus now just 8 hours away

03 Nov 201705:44am IST

03 Nov 201705:44am IST

Report byTeam Herald

PANJIM: With the holiday season not far, Goans are now having an opportunity to fly directly to Europe in the official airline of Santa Claus – Finnair.

In line with the growth strategy, the 94 year-old airline which began its operation as a mail carrier in 1923, has opened a new route which connects Goa to Helsinki twice a week and added an additional Goa-Delhi flight. The Goa-Delhi and Delhi-Goa flights will now operate six days a week instead of the previous five.

The eight hour flight from Goa to Helsinki will fly out on Thursday and Monday at 0815 hours and will fly in from Helsinki to Goa on Wednesday and Sunday touching down at Dabolim airport at 0630 hours. The operations started on November 1 this year and will continue till March 21, 2018.

It is expected that with this direct flight many tourist from Scandinavian countries, including Finland are likely to visit warm Goa during the winter season, primarily to avoid the extreme winter conditions in Europe. “Goa is a popular winter holiday destination especially among Nordic customers. This winter season is the first time we operate Goa as a scheduled flight route,” said the general manager of Finnair India, Desmond Chacko.

Addressing a press conference, the senior vice president, communications and corporate social responsibility of Finnair, Arja Souminen said that with this flight connection Goa will see more tourist footfalls from Europe. “We will also be launching a Helsinki-Lisbon flight next summer and we are aware how closely Goa is connected with Portugal,” added Ms Soumeinen.

Finnair is poised to enter the largest expansion in its 94-year-old history during the upcoming winter season. With its fast connecting hub in Helsinki, Finnair offers one of the most reliable and convenient networks linking several key destinations in Europe, Asia and North America. Finnair’s growth strategy will be in full swing during the winter season with 20 intercontinental destinations, over 100 destinations in Europe and a significant increase in capacity for Lapland destinations. As of now, Finnair connects 19 cities in Asia, seven in North America and over 100 destinations in Europe.